Sir Bruce Forsyth has said he can never imagine retiring because he loves performing so much.

The 85-year-old TV presenter told the Mirror it is performing that keeps him feeling young as he hit back at the reports he slowed down filming of the first Strictly Come Dancing live show this year by being tired and confused.

Bruce defended himself saying: "It was so ludicrous I had to laugh when I read I was largely responsible for the show taking so long to record. If it was true I'd be fired by the BBC, if I hadn't already quit.

"I'd have needed carrying out on a stretcher because I'd have lost the plot.

"What slowed it up was filming from a new studio at Elstree for the first time.

"We were all exhausted by the end of it, though. Who wouldn't be after five hours in the studio? I wasn't so much tired as fed up we weren't out two hours earlier."

The veteran entertainer also insisted he had mispronounced the names of some of the foreign dancers on purpose as a joke, that had been scripted as part of the show. He also said he had told the audience to "shut up" as a joke because they were laughing at his pronunciation. And when had turned his back on the audience during filming it was choreographed, as a body double was set to jump in and do a back flip.

Bruce revealed: "I think people expect me to be going senile. I realise I'm probably the only 85-year-old man on TV doing live shows several hours a week for weeks on end but I'm still sharp. I've not lost my marbles at all. I do play marbles every morning, though, and I did lose one the other day under the bed. I had to get it using one of my golf clubs.

"If I'd retired earlier I'd have aged quicker and who knows where I'd be? Every year for 10 years I've been retiring from Strictly but it hasn't happened yet.

"I'll probably open a golf shop if I do, but I don't want to do nothing. I can't ever imagine stopping because performing is the thing I love the most."